Motor Tech: The top 10 most expensive cars of all time

There are more high net worth individuals in the United States than any other country – a lot more. Though other countries are beginning to catch up, right now the United States is the home of the collectibles market in almost every genre (art, stamps, coins, wine, ad infinitum), and rare automobiles are no exception.
Seventy-two of the top 100 cars sold at auction (72 percent) were sold in the United States, with the United Kingdom (12), Italy (8), France (4), Monaco (3) and Germany (1) making up the remainder. Finally, we get to the list itself. Wherever the auction house has provided an online link to the individual sale, we've included it.

1 – 1962-63 Ferrari 250 GTO Berlinetta

US$38,115,000
August, 2014, Pebble Beach, U.S.
Auctioned by Bonhams

The first sale at auction of a Ferrari 250 GTO for many years created intense international interest at Pebble Beach this year, with the record almost certain to be broken well before bidding began.The rumor mill tends to report really big dollar sales and in recent times it had been working overtime and the word on everyone's lips was GTO. In February 2012, a 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO changed hands privately to become the most expensive car ever sold with a price of US$32 million. Then, just a few months later, a 1962 GTO sold for US$35 million, and in late 2013 a 1963 GTO sold this time for US$52 million.
As mentioned, the sale of the GTO returned the automotive auction record to Ferrari on the 26th anniversary of the death of Enzo Ferrari). The full story can be found here.

2 – 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 Silver Arrow

US$29,600,000
July, 2013
West Sussex,United Kingdom
Auctioned by Bonhams

Juan Manuel Fangio leads the pack through Eau Rouge in his Mercedes-Benz W 196 R in 1955 Belgian GP

One of the most famous cars in the world, driven by the world's most famous driver, which we've covered in great detail previously.
Mercedes-Benz has a history of competing at the highest level of motorsport, trying out a host of new technologies, winning big, then retiring. The company returned to Grand Prix racing in 1954 with the stated intention of winning both the World F1 title and the World Sportscar championship, achieved everything it set out to do inside two years, then shut it all down.
Only fourteen W196R machines ever existed. Ten still exist, three are in museums and six remain inside Mercedes-Benz. That leaves this Silver Arrow W196R (chassis 006/54) as the only post-war Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrow in private hands. The very recent (2010 – present) F1 cars of Schumacher, Rosberg and Hamilton all remain inside Mercedes-Benz too.
The car is a technological gem, having been built specifically to win world Formula One titles, the W196R won two inside 18 months with a final scorecard of 12 starts for nine wins. The engine is a 2½-liter straight-8 and the auction car was driven by Fangio who won both the 1954 German and Swiss Grand Prix races in it.
The W165R was such a showcase of technological firsts that it is a milestone vehicle in motorsport history, and a car that demonstrates significant thought leadership on many levels.

Desmodromic valve actuation (as used by Ducati sixty years later), inboard brakes, independent suspension, the first first fuel-injected F1 motor, a lightweight space frame that weighed just 36 kg (73 lb), all wrapped in an aerodynamics package so far ahead of the game that it put the team in a different league.
As you shall see as this list progresses, almost every car has an impeccable provenance and derives at least some of its considerable value from being owned or driven or used by royalty, a celebrity, or a famous driver.
This particular Silver Arrow was driven by the most respected race driver of all-time, Juan Manuel Fangio. Fangio won several Grand Prix races in this vehicle including famous back-to-back victories that sealed his 1954 Formula One driver's title.
For those who know the name but not the deeds, Fangio's racing years were largely stolen by WWII. When he drove his first F1 race, he was 38 years of age, yet he went on to win 24 Formula one races, five driver titles with four teams (Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati), and still easily retains the highest winning percentage of any driver in F1 history at 46 percent – 24 wins from 52 starts.
For the record, those behind him are Alberto Ascari (13 from 33 / 39.4%), Jim Clark (25 from 73 / 34.25%), Michael Schumacher (91 from 308 / 29.6%), Jackie Stewart (27 from 100 / 27%), Ayrton Senna (41 from 162 or 25.3%) and Alain Prost (51 from 202 / 25.2%) and his win ratio is better than double that of any current driver. The full story of both the car and the driver can be found in our in-depth write up when the Silver Arrow took the world record.
Racing historian Doug Nye said of Fangio: "He was a humble man, originally a mechanic from a potato town in Argentina – and he never forgot his roots. As a driver, he was simply a genius. As a man he had no enemies. He was universally loved, even by those he regularly beat on track. No standard-setting sportsman could have a better epitaph."

3 – 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 S NART Spider

US$27,700,000
August, 2013
Pebble Beach, U.S.

When North American Ferrari importer (and Le Mans 24 Hour winner) Luigi Chinetti said to his friend Eddie Smith, “I talked Enzo into building some spiders. Do you want one?”, the story of this car began. Eddie bought one of the ten N.A.R.T. (North American Racing Team) Spiders that were built and the car remained in the family until this sale when it was generously donated to charity.

The whole story is in the official auction page for the car. Fully restored, one of the most beautiful Ferraris ever made, and blindingly quick with its 300 bhp 3,286 cc quad cam V-12 engine.
Eddie Smith Snr.'s 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 S NART Spider was one of just ten built. It was sold by RM Auctions for US$27,700,000 in August, 2013. Photo © Darin Schnabel/RM Auctions.

4 - 1964 Ferrari 275 GTB/C Speciale

US$26,400,000
August, 2014
Pebble Beach, U.S.
Auctioned by RM Auctions

We've already written up the 1964 Ferrari 275 GTB/C Speciale to be auctioned by RM Auctions. The hand-built 275 GTB/C incorporated lightweight aluminum bodywork and a Tipo 563 chassis.
As a successor to Ferrari’s 250 GTO, the Speciale ran a lightweight, 3.3 liter V12 that, with the help of six Weber carburetors, managed to produce 320 hp (238.6 kW). That impressive bit of power was put to the road via a 5-speed manual transaxle gearbox that worked in conjunction with a four-wheel independent suspension set up, and disc brakes on all corners.

5 – 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spider

US$18,450,000 (sold for EUR16,300,000)
February, 2015
Paris, France
Auctioned by Artcurial

The jewel within the world’s greatest ever barnfind (the Baillon Collection), this 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spider fetched US$18.45 million (EUR16.3 million) at Artcurial’s Retromobile auction in Paris on February 5, 2015.
It was formerly owned by actor Alain Delon, one of several cars unaccounted for in the Ferrari Register and thought lost. Full story.

6 – 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa

US$16,390,000
August, 2013
Pebble Beach, U.S.
Auctioned by Gooding & Co

A previous holder of the world auction record, this Ferrari Testa Rossa prototype sold for US$16.4 million at the 2013 Gooding & Co Pebble Beach auction.
The 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa auction car debuted at the 1957 Nurburgring 1000 kms but it is not the car's racing history which makes it so valuable, but the fact this is the very first Testa Rossa – the original prototype and rolling testbed for the 250 TR (Testa Rossa) line, one of the most successful sports racing cars ever.
Though Ferrari's Testa Rossa dominated sports car racing for the next half decade, only 34 were ever built, with this car's younger siblings winning the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1958, 1960, and 1961.

This is the original Ferrari Testa Rossa (Testa Rossa means "red head" in Italian), a nickname derived thanks to the bright red rocker covers on THIS CAR - Chassis 0666 TR).
Like many race cars that have seen action over a period, Ferrari 0666 TR is a little bit like Grandpa's axe (which had three heads and 12 handles during its lifetime), as it burned twice and was seriously bent out of shape during the 1958 Le Mans 24 Hour race. It is nonetheless the original Testa Rossa, and hence represents the beginning of a long and glorious history.
The full story of Ferrari 0666 TR regales its provenance in granular detail.

7 – 1954 Ferrari 375-Plus Spider Competizione

US$16,380,895
(sold for £10,753,500)
June, 2014
Goodwood, U.K.
Auctioned by Bonhams

Bonhams describes this car in the auction catalog as an "outstanding example of the biggest-engined, most powerful and most important sports-racing Ferrari model built purely for works team use at the outset of the 1954 International motor racing season."
One of the features of the "works" 1954 Ferrari 375-Plus Spider was its 4.9 litre V12 motor, which was known by the French racing community as "Le Monstre" and by the British as "The Fearsome Four-Nine."
The car ran second in the 1954 Mille Miglia in the hands of Umberto Maglioli, won an international race at Silverstone in May with JoséFroilán González behind the wheel, then Maglioli and Paolo Marzotto used this car in the Le Mans 24 Hour race, swapping the lead with a sister car driven by González and Maurice Trintignant until a gearbox failure finished its race. González and Trintignant won the race in an identical car and both cars shared the fastest lap.
Paolo Marzotto, the driver who had passed the exquisitely talented González (dubbed the "The Pampas Bull" by the British press) for the lead at Le Mans, described this car as "terrifyingly fast" as it had enough torque to out-accelerate anything out of a corner, and enough horsepower to breeze past the aerodynamically superior D-Type Jaguars on the straights.

This particular car has a long and interesting history which is well documented on the Bonhams auction page.
"The Fearsome Four-Nine" is perhaps best known as the winner of the final and fastest Carrera Panamericana in Mexico.
For those unfamiliar with the infamous Carrera Panamericana, it was a road race run on public roads in Mexico from 1950 to 1954. To picture the event, think of famous road races such as the Mille Miglia or Targa Florio on both steroids and acid. The race was twice as long as the Mille Miglia, and with no separation from the public.
The original Carrera Panamericana (it has now been revived in somewhat tamer and saner form) is arguably the fastest and most dangerous road race ever held on public roads, well beyond the African runnings of the Paris-Dakar, an event we previously labelled the world's most dangerous sporting event when it was still being run in Africa.
The 1950-54 Carrera Panamericana comprehensively trumps the Paris-Dakar as the world's most dangerous regularly staged motor race EVER! In five runnings of the Carrera Panamericana, 27 competitors were killed along with an unknown but substantial number of spectators and race officials.
When the race began in 1950, average speed for the 3000+ kilometer course was 142 km/h (88 mph) but by the fifth running, average speeds (remember this was on public roads, indeed, a national highway, and organizer resources to separate the public from the racing were so thin that "collateral damage" was almost guaranteed) had climbed dramatically to an average speed of 173.7 km/h (107.96 mph).
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame British band Pink Floyd's Nick Mason and David Gilmour made a film documentary about the Carrera Panamericana race which can be seen in two parts – part 1 and part 2 – with seven previously unpublished tracks along with some music you will undoubtedly know.
Factory teams from Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati, Gordini, Buick, Cadillac and Oldsmobile competed, and the world's best drivers (Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Ritchie Ginther, Piero Taruffi, Umberto Maglioli, Felice Bonetto, Louis Chiron, Herman Lang, Karl Ling and dozens of other well-known names) drove in the event, and it held world championship status in both 1953 and 1954.

8 - 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider

US$15,180,000
August, 2014
Pebble Beach, U.S.
Auctioned by Gooding & Co

This Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider features the highly attractive covered-headlight treatment, which Scaglietti applied to just 37 of the 56 examples built. It is also one of a limited number of SWB California Spiders that came factory-equipped with an optional hardtop. This car has been displayed at such world-renowned events as Concorso Italiano, Monterey Vintage Ferrari Concours and Cavallino Classic, as well as participating in important rallies such as the Colorado Grand and the Copperstate 1000. Accompanied by a Ferrari Classiche certification, it will most likely push its way into the top 20 most valuable cars ever sold at auction, and top 10 is also a possibility.

9 – 1964 Ferrari 250 LM

US$14,300,000
November, 2013
New York, U.S.
Auctioned by RM Auctions

Described by RM Auctions in the auction catalog as "one of the finest original examples of Ferrari’s first mid-engined car", the Ferrari 250 LM (for "Le Mans") was a derivative of the 250P (for prototype) and 275P mid-engined factory race cars which won the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 1963 and 1964 – a genuine racecar available to the public.
Only 32 of the 320 hp V-12 250 LMs were built, and one duly went on to validate its model designation by winning the 1965 Le Mans classic in North American Racing Team (NART) colours, driven by Masten Gregory, Ed Hugus and Jochen Rindt (who would win the World Formula One Champion in 1970, albeit posthumously).

The full history of this car, which included eighth overall and first in class at the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona, can be found on the official RM Auctions page.

10 – 1953 Ferrari 340/375 MM Berlinetta 'Competizione'

US$12,745,707
(sold for EUR9,856,000)
May, 2013
Tivoli, Lazio, Italy
Auctioned by RM Auctions

This is a car of legend. It is the CAR in which Umberto Maglioli famously averaged 222 km/h (138 mph) for the final 365 km (227 mile) stage of the infamous Carrera Panamericana to ensure Ferrari won the 1953 World Sports Car Championship - an all-time record for a public road stage that will undoubtedly stand forever, at least in the bizarre circumstance of having the public using the same roads while the race is in progress.

This is one very special automobile for many reasons. It is a genuine factory Ferrari racing car, and was driven in the World Sports Car Championship by three World Champions: Mike Hawthorn, Alberto Ascari, and Giuseppe "Nino" Farina.
It was one of the three works 375 MM cars entered at the 1953 24 Hours of Le Mans race where it was disqualified while running in second place (driven by Hawthorn and Farina) because brake fluid had been added during a pit stop on the 12th lap, violating an obscure rule that prohibited the addition of any fluids before the 28th lap.
The car went on to play an integral part of Ferrari’s 1953 World Sports Car Manufacturer’s Championship, participated in the 24 Hour of Spa, and won the 12 Hours of Pescara.
There is one particular feat however, which stands above all that - this car achieved the fastest road stage average speed ever recorded, and in a world championship event at that.
We've already mentioned the outrageous Carrera Panamericana road race staged on public roads in Mexico in the early fifties in coverage of the 1954 Ferrari 375-Plus Spider Competizione which sits in third place in this Top 100 list. The Carrera Panamericana was legally sanctioned insanity.
This car (0320AM) was one of five 375 MM Ferraris entered in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana, all competing under the private banner of Franco Cornacchia’s Scuderia della Guastalla. It began the race driven by Mario Ricci, but during the fifth stage of the Carrera, Umberto Maglioli’s identical 375 MM (0358AM) lost a rear wheel and was unable to continue in the event – the attrition rate was understandably horrific with only one third of cars completing the race.
As the regulations of the Panamericana allowed for the substitution of drivers, Maglioli was then swapped into Ricci’s 0320AM and set about ensuring Ferrari collected the points it needed to overhaul Jaguar in the final event of the 1953 World Sports Car Championship.
Maglioli moved the car from eighth place when he took over, to a sixth place at the finish, but his drive during the eighth and final 365 km (227 mile) stage of the race is the stuff of legend.
In this car, Maglioli AVERAGED 222 km/h (138 mph), an all-time record for a public road stage that will undoubtedly stand forever, at least in the bizarre circumstance of having the public present while the race is in progress.
Part of a world championship, a car of legend, and beautiful too, it has been presented at and awarded at numerous concours d’elegance, including Pebble Beach, the Louis Vuitton Classic, and the Goodwood Revival.

CREDITS: gizmag